The Taliban released a video on Friday of a US soldier captured in Afghanistan, showing him apparently healthy, but spouting criticism about the US military operation.
In Idaho, Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl’s family pleaded on Christmas Day for his release and urged him to “stay strong.”
Bergdahl disappeared on June 30 while based in eastern Afghanistan and is the only known US serviceman in captivity. The Taliban claimed his capture in a video released in mid-July that showed the young Idaho soldier appearing downcast and frightened. He hadn’t been heard from until Friday’s video, in which he looks well and speaks clearly.
Although the video was released on Friday, it was unclear when it was made, and NATO spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks told the New York Times it was not evidence that Bergdahl is still alive.
He suggested the video may be a pastiche of clips from earlier this year.
“We are not using this as a proof-of-life video,” Shanks told the newspaper. “It’s still to be determined when it was made, but it could have been made even several months ago. It has a lot of editing pieces.”
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed hours later that the man in the video was Bergdahl, but denounced both its timing and content.
“This is a horrible act which exploits a young soldier, who was clearly compelled to read a prepared statement,” said a statement from US Navy Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, ISAF’s spokesman. “To release this video on Christmas Day is an affront to the deeply concerned family and friends of Bowe Bergdahl, demonstrating contempt for religious traditions and the teachings of Islam.”
Lieutenant Colonel Tim Marsano of the Idaho National Guard issued a statement on Friday from the family of Bergdahl, who live outside Hailey, Idaho.
In their statement, the family urged the captors “to let our only son come home.”
And to their son, the family said: “We love you and we believe in you. Stay strong.”
Marsano met with the family on Friday morning at their home. He said that the family had not seen the video, but had talked to other relatives who had seen it.
In the video, Bergdahl is shown seated, facing the camera, wearing sunglasses and what appears to be a US military helmet and uniform.
On one side of the image, it says: “An American soldier imprisoned by the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”
It also shows him eating while wearing garb characteristic of Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province, an area where the Taliban emerged in the 1990s.
In the video, Bergdahl says “It’s our arrogance and, and our stupidity that has made us so blind that we simply refuse to see the blunders and mistakes that we continue to make over and over again.”
“This is just going to be the next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense,” he said.
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